A.M. Roundup: Budget will tweak gun law, send rebates

Good morning! The forecast says a chance of snow remains, but after the last 36 hours, I no longer put much stock in the forecast. Gov. Andrew Cuomo is in Albany with no announced public schedule; legislators are here, too. After bishops met with Cuomo yesterday, hundreds of Catholics will lobby legislators today. Duffman will make an announcement this afternoon at the UAlbany Nanocollege. Legislators will be in a state of suspended animation until they’re not. Maybe we’ll see more from conference committees. I certainly expect more closed-door leaders meetings. Here are this morning’s headlines…

More details of a state budget are beginning to emerge, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo proclaimed the “general contours of a framework for an agreement” on a spending plan. It’s still unclear if it can be wrapped up this week, before legislators scatter for the holidays. (TU)

Lawmakers said they were considering changes to New York’s gun control law, the SAFE Act, including a softening of the seven-round cap on magazine capacity. A proposed amendment would allow people to buymagazines of up to 10-rounds, but still prevent them from loading them with more than seven rounds. It’s possible the seven-round limit will be removed for firearms kept in a person’s home. (Post-Standard/DN)

“These are highly mobile people that have options and are being solicited daily by governors of Florida, Texas, Puerto Rico, Utah — lower-tax states — and it feels like Albany was not considering the implications of the combined tax burden,” said Kathy Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City. “The reaction I’ve gotten from people who pay the tax is that clearly this is a message that suggests the state does not really value this very important group of job creators and taxpayers.” (NYT)

The New York Post: Question: What’s worse than yet another tax hike in tax-plagued New York?//Answer: Yet another tax hike presented as a tax cut.//That’s the not-so-funny punchline the state faces this week as Albany prepares to hit New Yorkers again with a new budget deal. The new tax hike takes the form of a second extension of the “temporary” millionaire’s tax that was first imposed in 2009 and renewed by Gov. Cuomo in 2011.//Of course, the governor won’t call this a tax hike. He’ll try to steer attention to smaller cuts that might offset the hike. His folks will also claim it shouldn’t count as a tax increase because it’s simply keeping in place a tax that’s already there. (NYP)

The Times Union: Phasing in a minimum wage increase has such a reasonable ring to it — until you run the numbers. Then you realize that a deal among state leaders would force workers to wait until 2016 for a wage that isn’t particularly adequate in 2013.//To present this deal as a fair and necessary compromise — as Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Senate Independent Democratic Conference Leader Jeff Klein appear poised to do — would be a distortion of reality. This moment is a test — of Mr. Cuomo’s and Mr. Klein’s commitment to New York’s workers and to the progressive agenda they claim to stand for.//The reality is that the minimum wage has eroded over the last four decades. Today it is worth about two-thirds of what it was at its peak in the early 1970s. (TU)